Monday, 22 September 2014

Tenerife - Garachico

Garachico
is a lovely harbour town on the northwest coast of Tenerife. We drove there one
afternoon to visit it. We parked our car at the sea front and munching on a
piece of freebie churro sticks we got at a bar we started to take a stroll around
what known as the island’s least spoilt coastal line.

Looking
around the grand town houses with the typical carved wooden balconies and the
cute little fishermen’s cottages perched on a cliff you wouldn’t have a clue of
the town’s past. Garachico is known as the unluckiest place on Earth and it has
quite a history when it comes to natural disasters. Plague, storms, fires,
floods, you name it, it was all present at some point here. Still, the people
of the town didn’t give up and persevered against all odds. Up to the point
when at the beginning 18th century a volcano erupted and sent a huge
amount of molten lava to cover Garachico and its harbour destroying its source
of trade. If you look behind the town you can still see the two solidified lava
rivers.

Garachico
however wasn’t destroyed, shaked itself off and started it all again taking
advantage of the disaster. The solidified lava that filled the harbour made
many small natural lava pools which are protected from the ocean.

By laying a
path here, carving a few steps there and planting some flowers in the lava
holes these rock pools have been converted into swimming pools and even though
there is no sandy beach around to speak of Garachico has turned itself into a
favoured bathing spot. If you happen to find the water of the Atlantic a wee
bit cold, there’s a fair sized municipal swimming pool right next to it
complete with a paddling pool for the smallest ones of the sun admirers.

If
you can pull yourself away from the natural pools have a wonder around.
Garachico boasts with one of the nicest, most picturesque main square in
Tenerife.